Six Nexus learners attended a YFS Weekend Bootcamp held over the weekend of 8/9 September at the Singapore Amazon headquarters on Church Street. There were approximately 40 participants from different school across Singapore split into nine different teams.

At the start of the weekend learners were put into teams of three or four people with the aim of creating a pitch deck for their business idea. In the mornings the groups listened to lectures from leading startup founders and innovators. In the afternoon the groups broke out and were assigned mentors who helped them to develop their business ideas and prepare for their pitch decks on Sunday afternoon.

Congratulation to Year 10 Nexus learners Atfa Husain and Elisa Pinker Rego whose group won first place and a cash prize of US$1,000 to put towards developing their new business idea. Their idea was an app called Action that allows people to make regular donations to a charity of their choice anywhere in the world. Another Year 10 Nexus learner, Sasha Harris, came in third place with her team AppReal who came up with an idea for an innovative travel app.

Well done to all concerned!

Caroline de Kock, Business and Economics Subject Leader

Year 12 learners were treated to a inspiring motivation talk from Sam Hardy who is an experienced BASE jumper and wingsuit pilot. After learning about the history of skydiving and BASE Jumping (with and without a wingsuit!), Sam shared his own personal journey of turning his dreams to reality.

A huge thanks to Sam, everybody present was fascinated by his story and achievements and we all left with a fresh perspective of goals setting, determination and self-motivation. Please check out Sam on his website.

Jim Bevan

Phase Leader Year 12/13

Former Alice cast mates, Niraj Nair (White Rabbit), Naomi Loy (The Duchess) and Siena Klinzing (The Mad Hatter) faced stiff competition and a challenging audition process in their bid to gain places on the prestigious acting and writing programmes run by Singapore Repertory Theatre. It is my pleasure to congratulate these three talented learners on their success at being selected for their chosen theatre programme.

Actors in the making, Naomi and Niraj had to perform a song and two monologues, including one from a Shakespeare play, as part of the audition process and they were successful in gaining $2,000 sponsorship each in order to complete the two-year actors’ training.

Naomi said: “This opportunity is extremely special as it will allow me to receive acting training from professionals as well as make contacts in the industry. Already, I've had my first audition experience, an extremely valuable one as one of the requirements was for me to sing, something quite far out of my comfort zone. I can’t wait to start in October.”

Siena had to submit a variety of samples of her written work and she is currently learning the craft of playwriting. She said: “The SRT Young Company Writer workshop has given me an amazing opportunity to get creative and showcase my very own work, developing my story-writing into more than just a hobby. I have the chance to learn about different aspects about writing a play as well as developing my own 20-minute play for the Asian Youth Theatre Festival 2018. I get to work around young writers from different schools and backgrounds and hear about how they develop their own story. Every week we are given an additional task to writing our play like filling in the blanks for a scene or given a setting to work with that will help us gain feedback and understand the process of writing plays. I am glad I was able to take part in the workshop and gain so much experience on being a playwright before showcasing my work to a local audience.”

The Young People’s Theatre Company has a well established reputation for training rising stars of the theatre - many alumni of the two-year programme go on to acting and writing courses in Singapore and beyond.

The Drama Team wishes all three learners every success with the next stage of their theatre journeys.

Jenny Burgess

Subject Leader: Drama, burgess.j@nexus.edu.sg

This year's Year 7 - 9 Inter-house Cross Country had our runners follow their younger peers out to Bedok Reservoir last Friday where they met with a soft and damp track. However learners still arrived in style with lots of noise, colour, and face paint. There was a real buzz!

We had some very pleasing results for those athletes hoping to represent Nexus at the ACSIS Cross Country Champs later in the season. But most importantly, it was great to see everyone ‘having a go’ at the event, enjoying themselves, and earning a shed load of house points along the way. Congratulations to Tanah (Green) House for taking out the honours in the first house event of the year. As defending champs of the House Cup, they have managed to retain top spot on the podium for another term.

A special mention also, to our top runners that day who earned maximum points for their house with some sensational races.

A huge thank you to all staff, parents and most importantly learners who were involved. Bring on the Inter-house Track and Field Days in January 2019! We look forward to seeing you all at the track and field days next year.

Graeme Massey

massey.g@nexus.edu.sg

Learning Area Leader, Health and Physical Education